1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a sound pickup device that can be used for an imaging apparatus such as a video camera. This invention particularly relates to a device capable of implementing good stereophonic sound pickup while adequately suppressing interference between direct sound from a sound source and reflected sound therefrom via walls and a floor during, for example, indoor use. Furthermore, this invention relates to an imaging apparatus equipped with a sound pickup device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical imaging apparatus such as a video camera for capturing moving images is equipped with a sound pickup device to obtain sound information. A general example of such a sound pickup device has two unidirectional microphone units contained in a camera casing. Another general example is designed so that a stereophonic microphone assembly having a single body containing two unidirectional microphone units is accommodated in a camera casing. In these examples, the two microphone units are relatively close to each other, and hence there is only a small difference between sound reaching one of the microphones from a sound source and sound reaching the other microphone from the sound source. Accordingly, the sound pickup performance of these examples tends to be not so different from that of a sound pickup device having only a single microphone unit. Thus, it tends to be difficult to implement good stereophonic sound pickup.
PCT publication number WO 96/10884 corresponding to Japanese patent application publication number Hei-10-506512 discloses a sound pickup device designed so that ear-like projections having central holes are provided on right and left sides of a camera body respectively, and a microphone unit is located at a deep position within the central hole in each of the ear-like projections.
In the sound pickup device of PCT number WO 96/10884, the two microphone units are well separated, and the camera body functions as a dummy head. Thus, it is possible to obtain stereophonic sound pickup performance and binaural sound pickup performance better than those of a sound pickup device having two microphone units close to each other and located in a camera casing.
In the sound pickup device of PCT number WO 96/10884, the ear-like projections are main portions of sound pickup elements, and there are strict limitations on the shape of the camera body and the positions of the microphone units. If the elements and members are placed differently from a specified configuration, desired stereophonic sound pickup and recording are difficult to implement. Thus, it is hard to achieve good tone quality during playback of recorded sounds.